Google+ Gets In A Huddle Muddle?
Part of Google+ uses the name of an existing social media player. On the command, unleash lawyers!
Google’s social media service Google+, launched this week, may have some small legal issues to iron out with social media player Huddle.
Google+ is a set of social media tools designed to compete with Facebook, and includes Huddle text chat. However, there is already a social media product called Huddle – which handles content sharing amongst users and competes with Microsoft’s Sharepoint.
Huddle will be in touch…
The Google+ project includes Circles, which shares material with groups, countering objections to Google’s ill-fated Buzz social media effort of 2010, and potentially delivering more privacy than Facebook.
It also includes Google +1, the company’s answer to Facebook’s Like button, allowing users to click a button to recommend content to friends and contacts.
Huddle is a comparatively small part of the Google+ project designed to allow groups to chat easily, while London-based Huddle.com makes a product for content management and collaboration, which has made some inroads into business and government as an alternative to Microsoft Sharepoint.
Huddle has signed a deal as a cloud provider for the UK government, and already works with around 60 government departments. Cloud computing is a major IT strategy for the government, though doubts have been raised about a formal “G-Cloud”.
The overlap in function between the two Huddles is slight or non-existent, but both are in the social media space. Huddle told eWEEK Europe that it is currently consulting with its lawyers, and cannot provide any comment at this stage.
